ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE THE BUFFALO

[Richard]

Dear Customer,
We are sorry to inform you that you were not successful in securing a reservation in the Four Rivers Lottery - Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

Your Lottery Application #: 6-452393

Any unconfirmed dates from the Lottery will be released to the public after 15th March 2010 through http://www.recreation.gov" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Please feel free to reserve any of the available dates after 15th March 2010. You can also check for any available pre or post season launch dates on the Middle fork of Salmon River at http://www.recreation.gov" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

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[Butch Crain]

Wonder how the water quality of the Middle Fork compares to the Buffalo.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Blaze away.

[okieboater]

What I do not know is the chemical analysis of water from both streams.

My guess is the Middle Fork is cleaner than the Buffalo but would not be surprised to find that both are pretty clean.

Most of my Buffalo River trips have been in the fall months and I have found the water clear and looking good.

Most of my Middle Fork trips have been in mid to late June and I have found the water to be extremely clear. IE you can see a lot of lost cam straps in the deep water at the BC put in, especially around those rafts on the outside layer of tie ins. I do remember one trip where we got some flash flooding past the midpoint and the water in the MFS was pretty dark looking (I would not describe it as muddy, just sediment that looked a lot like runoff from burned areas), it did clear up after that one day.

Interesting question. Does any one know of a real chemical analysis of both rivers. On the Buffalo it would be interesting to see two tests. One above the Boxley Bridge and another further down stream IE Buffalo Point camp ground area.

[Richard]

Right now you would not want to drink the Buffalo River water. You may not want to swim downstream from Pruitt (Marble Falls sewage). I had a long conversation with Scott Moore. He has been with the health Dept in Jasper (Newton and Boone Counties) for ten years and he deals with that sort of thing. None of the river would pass a drinkable water quality standard. Some of it may be in jeopardy for swimming and the allowable amount of contaminants is 120 times greater for swimming than drinking water. He said that in 10 years he has seen only one spring sample that was free of e-coli and he thinks that may have been a bad sampling. Its the nature of living on karst topography.
He also pointed out that most likely the farther downstream you go the more contaminants you will have. Simply because you are dealing with a larger watershed. He did point out however that the farther from Marble Falls you go the more that particular contaminate gets diluted.
Bottom line is that I think (my own opinion) is that Dave is right and that the Middle Fork is probably cleaner. They don't have the Karst topo to deal with for one thing and they don't have as much human contributed contamination either.

But water quality was not what I was pointing out. Access. We don't have a lottery system yet. I don't have to hope for getting a lucky draw. I can go anytime I want. I don't have to check in anywhere. BUT, I do have the duty and responsibility to do my part to make sure the river is at least as well off when I exit as it was when I put on.

[Butch Crain]

Like it or not, water quality and access often go hand in hand. You're probably right in that the soils in the Middle Fork drainage may not facilitate waste intrusion into the river, and I suspect the immediate area is not as developed as the area surrounding the Buffalo. But development and access are just different intensities of the same problem.

[okieboater]

Thanks to the brave souls who were able to put resources like the Middle Fork of the Salmon and Buffalo River into national resources with management that can maintain the watershed.

Middle Fork is indeed surrounded by federally controlled park land and hopefully good management practice can keep the watershed as clean as possible.

The Buffalo is not as lucky as the Middle Fork. It does have some surrounding park land but the watershed is pretty much open to polution inflows in the middle to lower sections. Just think what the Buffalo would be without the protection it has now.

Maybe someday cities and individuals cannot directly dump their sewers or septic tank runoff into watersheds with out proper cleaning of same.

I remember growing up in North Georgia. One of our neighbors was a hunter and advocate of not only harvesting game but taking care of the land as well. We would be out walking in what was then pretty wild areas above Dahlonega, Georgia and he would say "let's have a drink of water from this little creek, it's clean and maybe a deer stepped in it". I know even clean looking streams can have "beaver fever" but to us the occasional deer hoof print meant pretty wild country free of polution.